Welcome to New Angeles

Commissioner Dawn lifted the sheet, glanced at the cooling corpse underneath, and then grimaced. It was just as the officer on the scene had said, and it meant a lot of paperwork and a lot of overtime for her detectives...

It is the future. Mankind has spread itself out across the solar system with varying degrees of success. The Moon and Mars are colonized. A plan to terraform Mars is well underway, hindered only by a civil war that has broken out on that planet. On Earth, a massive space elevator has been built, stretching up into the sky. It is the hub of trade in the solar system, and most people refer to it as the "Beanstalk."

Computers have continued to advance, and that, combined with discoveries in the field of neurobiology, has led to brain-mapping, a method by which a human mind can be stored electronically. Recently, two rival companies used this development in different ways to create artificial, sentient life. Jinteki created human clones that can be matured and educated in a fraction of the normal time. Haas-Bioroid, on the other hand, built robots with brain-mapped, artificially intelligent minds, calling them "bior-oids." Naturally, this has caused no end of trouble.

With both companies selling their artificial humans, or androids, as cheap labor, thousands of already-impoverished humans have found themselves unemployed. This, combined with their deep mistrust of scientists playing God, has led many lower- and middle-class citizens to hate and fear the androids. A group calling itself Human First has sprung up, calling the androids "golems'" - referring to the legendary soulless clay creatures. Human First has attacked the androids on numerous occasions, usually wielding sledgehammers as their weapon of choice, since the androids are often physically resilient.

In this hotbed of hatred, fear, and prejudice, the men and women of the New Angeles Police Department attempt to maintain order. Their job isn't easy, since their charter requires them to patrol not only New Angeles but also the Heinlein moon colony located across the Beanstalk. Nevertheless, they continue to guard the thin blue line between civilization and anarchy.